International Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference (ESTC) 2012

Celebration of Cultures Party, ESTC 2012

by Marcela Torres

Last week I had the opportunity of participating for the first time in the International Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference, held in Monterey, California and organized by the International Ecotourism Society (TIES).

It was a great honor for me to be able to deliver, precisely on the day of Chile’s Independence, a presentation on the experience of contributing to developing ecotourism at the Chaxa Lagoon, in Los Flamencos National Reserve in the Atacama Salt Flat. The project, which we developed for CONAF Antofagasta and the Lickan-Antay Indigenous Community of Toconao with the Torres Asociados Limitada consultancy firm, consisted of building the first sustainable Visitor Center in a protected area in Chile and implementing a set of bilingual materials to interpret the natural and cultural values of the area.

The interest of attendees in learning about this experience gave me great satisfaction because it was that project which made me realize that I wanted to dedicate my life to ecotourism and motivated me to study a masters in the topic.

The International Ecotourism Society has been promoting ecotourism for over a decade and working to ensure that tourism activity generates benefits for both the host communities and the environment of the destinations where it operates. This version of the Conference was attended by representatives from such diverse countries as Argentina, Botswana, Canada, Ecuador, Guyana, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya and the United States, to name a few. All of us analyzed issues such as how to fund sustainability initiatives, development and empowerment of local communities, the role of ecotourism in promoting the conservation of endangered species and the unique opportunity of the travel industry to contribute to eradicate poverty.

During the meeting, the International Ecotourism Society also launched the guidelines to regulate “voluntourism”(volunteer tourism), which it developed together with the Planeterra Foundation. The document can be downloaded from the TIES website.

The Celebration of Cultures party, the closing event of the Conference, was the highlight since it allowed attendees to share with the rest some aspects of their culture, such as music and typical outfits, and it emphasized the importance and the great potential of tourism to unite people from so many different countries around a common goal: A better quality of life for all.

This entry was originally posted by the author on September 23, 2012.

WRTD 2011: Tourism can help reduce poverty

Harriet Lamb during the WRTD 2011 opening ceremony at the WTM.

© Marcela Torres

By Marcela Torres

 “We have the means and the responsibility to help the local communities of the places that we visit and empower them to overcome poverty,” said Fiona Jeffrey, Chairman of the WTM. She also dedicated some words to the many and often unknown industry champions, highlighting that there’s a growing number of people who are working day to day to protect our culture, defend our destinations, conserving biological diversity and contributing to secure the sustainability of our home, Earth.

The official opening speech for this fifth version of the WRTD was presented by Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. Lamb remembered that “twenty years ago, when I started talking about paying fair prices to small farmers for their coffee many people laughed at me saying nobody would be willing to pay more to help people sustain their livelihoods. Well, they’re not laughing now!”

Actually the fair-trade movement has expanded throughout the world and more and more consumers are demanding products with a fair-trade certification. And it’s not just about coffee farmers. The concept applies to all kinds of products and trade areas. Lamb said that 50% of consumers in the United Kingdom, for example, are willing to pay more for a product that is certified as fair-trade.

“And the good thing is that it also makes sense for the businesses,” Lamb said. “Think about it. A large supermarket chain that sold some excellent chocolate actually made the connection while talking to us and they realized that if they did not pay their cocoa farmers well enough, those people would run out of business and they wouldn’t have farmers to supply them cocoa beans to produce their chocolate bars. No beans, no bars. It’s that simple!”

That commercial advantage has also been understood by several tourism companies who are not only paying fairly to their suppliers but also –in many cases- have gone a step further and set up foundations to support education, conservation and even tap water community projects throughout the world.

There is much to be achieved still, however, and Fiona Jeffrey made a call to the entire tourism industry to hop on to the responsible tourism wagon: “This is not just a cultish craze or the latest in-vogue trend to be replaced with something else in a year or two. Increasing numbers of consumers are recognizing that the world –or the industry for that matter- cannot go on in the way it has since mass tourism first came into being.” With more than 300 delegates from all over the world, the World Responsible Tourism Day 2011 was celebrated yesterday at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, stressing the unique opportunity the tourism industry has in helping reduce poverty throughout the planet.

This entry was originally posted by the author on November 10, 2011.